Joni Mitchell: 20 essential songs

Both Sides Now (1967)Mitchell's world-weary meditation on love and loss was the emotional centrepiece of the 2003 film Love Actually, playing as Emma Thompson's character realised her husband was in love with someone else. Originally recorded in 1969, it was revisited in 2000 for Mitchell's jazz album of the same name. The original has all the songbird innocence of young love, but the later version is darker and wiser, and all the more heartbreaking for it. Charlotte Runcie
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